Exclusive preview of Daphne Guinness's wardrobe exhibition

Melissa Whitworth gets a sneak peek at the heiress's wonderful clothing collection, which will go on display at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York next month.

BY Melissa Whitworth |
05 August 2011

Daphne Guinness at The White Fairy Tale Love Ball Photo: Rex

There is a room called "the laboratory" at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York's own Central Saint Martins. Here, a team of 30 preservationists, curators and seamstresses have spent the last two years preparing for an exhibition of Daphne Guinness's vast wardrobe, which will open to the public on September 17.

Related articles

Dr Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator at FIT is peeling back the cotton covers on long rows of rolling clothes racks to reveal some of the most "directional pieces", as she calls them, from Guinness's collection of couture and high fashion. For months, they have been restoring the clothes, steaming them, writing meticulous condition reports, documenting and photographing each item, and finally dressing them on mannequins.

There is an Alexander McQueen jacket - Guinness was one of his long-term muses - which has shoulders adorned with solid silver eagle-head epaulettes the size of a man's fist. This piece needed careful arrangement, says Steel, because the eagles were so heavy. There is a dress Guinness designed herself, which looks rather like a futuristic Roland Mouret - a structured sheath dress in palest green - and a Valentino silk jacquard blazer with a flamboyant ostrich feather collar.

"Some of her things are so tiny," she Steele, pointing to the narrow waist on a Lacroix evening coat. "This is Chanel," gesturing to a beaded Twenties-style cocktail dress hanging on a rail, "and this Balenciaga blouse is just stunning."

And then, of course, there are the shoes, some of which look more like medieval torture instruments than footwear - Guinness was a fan of McQueen's famously ugly "alien" shoe. The museum at FIT, known as the "couture vaults", owns 4,000 pairs of shoes, some of them dating back to the 18th century.

"Daphne is absolutely the most striking woman, right now, a true style icon," says Steele. "We are used to thinking about the shows and about designers and, of course, they are creative, but the stylish women who are wear them, they're the ones who make the pieces come to life."

Who else would Steele put on the same pedestal as Guinness?

"Chanel is the interesting one because she was not only the designer, but a woman of style as well. Years ago, we did a show on Tina Chow. You could say the Duchess of Windsor - a show on her would be very interesting."

Steele then takes me on a tour of the magical couture vaults in the basement of the FIT building. The vast room is climate controlled, and kept in the dark for as many hours a day as possible. My pen is confiscated and replaced with a pencil.

The museum owns more than 35,000 garments, 15,000 accessories and 30,000 rare textiles.

"This side is the American designers," says Steele, all arranged in rows and rows set out in alphabetical order, "from Beene, down to Zoran. On this side, the European and Japanese designers section, you'll find everything from Alaia, Balenciaga and Chanel, to Yohji Yamamoto."

There are voluminous gowns by Charles James - recognised as being America's first couturier - which need custom-made hangers to hold them. Then there are drawers and drawers marked with dates starting in the 1700s. "Here, we have things that are lying down because they are either heavy and beaded and they can't hang without being damaged," she says, referencing pieces by Poiret and Charles Worth.

For Steele, she falls in love with whatever the museum has most recently acquired (they have a budget of $100,000 a year for acquisitions). The highlights for me are the Charles James dresses, including a standout four-leaf clover dress. She loves the Poiret and Vionnet collections they've been donated.

"We have clothes that range from the 18th century to the present, but the bulk of the collection is post-Second World War, and we are actively collecting from the late 20th century and early 21st century fashion. The thrust of the things we collect are things that move fashion forward."

We wander down another rail - past an entire Chanel section - and there is a dress in a pattern plum-coloured fabric by Anna Maria Garthway from 1770. "Garthway was one of the first textile designers and very influential in 18th century London," she says, holding it up carefully.

"Because we are a fashion museum and not an art museum, we don't have to focus on 'high art'. We can spend more time looking for things like subcultural styles. For example, we will be collecting punk outfits and goth outfits, as well as couture and directional ready-to-wear."

At the moment, they are focusing on contemporary designers like Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons and Alexander McQueen, and they have been collecting Rodarte since the American designers' first collection in 2005.

"There is never enough room," says Steele, pulling out a drawer containing a bust enhancer from 1895 wrapped tissue paper. "The Wonderbra concept came early," she says. "Look at how it's a big 'mono-bosom'. There is a padded sausage-shaped insert across the chest of a lace-up corset. If you were doing an exhibition on undergarments, you would look at how the shape of bras went from the mono-bosom to separated, to uplifted, to pointed."

The room is temperature and humidity-controlled. The team in charge turn off all the lights when no one is there. Everything is wrapped in acid-free tissue.

"You're being very good not touching anything," says Steele, as I reach out to touch a pale-pink silk whalebone corset from 1770 - and then think better of it.

The Daphness Guinness exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology opens on September 17,
www.fitnyc.edu